Bart Dijkhof and Pascal Mussche prolong championship title
At the TT Junior Track in Assen on Saturday 1 October, the 2022 Puchshop Racing Cup season concluded. The champion of the Standard class had already been announced a week earlier during the races in Veldhoven, but in the Expi class, reigning champion Bart Dijkhof and Henk Minnen went neck and neck in the championship. Minnen came to Assen with 7 points ahead of Dijkhof, where there were still 50 points to be given away. Swiss rider Buchser also had a theoretical chance of winning the title, but the Swiss did not appear at the start. The battle for the title would therefore be fought between Minnen and Dijkhof, and Minnen showed to be in form during the qualifying sessions. Like a week earlier in Veldhoven, the track was wet during qualifying, but that did not stop him from clocking the fastest time ahead of Dijkhof, Robert van Steenis, Sander Mulder and Rienk van der Weide. Pascal Mussche recorded the sixth fastest time, ahead of a strong driving Hugo Satter. Jordi Minnen was still struggling with a leg injury and had to watch from the sidelines as he lost his third place in the championship.
Race 1
All eyes were on the polesitter, but unfortunately Minnen's performance was short-lived. His Puch gave up the ghost almost immediately, due to what later turned out to be problems with the fuel supply. The machine refused service and the chance for points was therefore gone. For Bart Dijkhof the chance to take over the championship lead. As the race progressed, he had to watch a strong riding Van Steenis closing in on him, but the race was just too short for Van Steenis to attack Dijkhof. He did set the fastest lap time and secured second place for Van der Weide. In the Standard class, Hugo Satter was the big surprise. He took advantage of a crash by Mussche, beat Jannick Vos and took the win. Chris Weenen finished third ahead of Paul Hendriks. Mussche was able to continue his way after his slide and finished fifth.
Race 2
Meanwhile, Minnen had found the culprit of the fuel problem, a faulty fuel connector. The problem was quickly fixed and in the second race he was unleashed. He was the only one to record lap times well under a minute and after 13 laps he had almost lapped the entire field. Shrugging his shoulders, he crossed the finish line: what else could he do but win? He knew that the mechanical failure of the first race had killed him. And so it proved once again that in the Puch class, you only know who has won when the finishing flag falls. Dijkhof knew that too. Keep it together and make no mistakes, that was his assignment and he executed it flawlessly. Behind Minnen, another strong driving Van Steenis and Van der Weide, he crossed the finish line in fourth place. And that was enough to clinch the championship title, six points ahead of Minnen. In the Standard class, Mussche put things in order and won the race ahead of Vos and Satter. There were not many crashes or dropouts, but for Wilco Quist it was not only end of season but also end of engine block, after the connecting rod broke off.
Champions
The 2022 champions are known: Bart Dijkhof and Pascal Mussche both prolonged their titles. In the Expi class, Minnen came second and Van der Weide equalled Kenny Buchser's points total. Officially, third place then goes to the person with the most wins, and that is Buchser. In the Standard class, Jannick Vos drove a strong season, resulting in a fine second place in the championship. No podium at the race in Assen for Paul Hendriks, but he collected enough points to secure third place in the championship.
Results Assen 1 October
Expi class
1 Robert van Steenis
2 Bart Dijkhof
3 Rienk van der Weide
Standard class
1 Hugo Satter
2 Jannick Vos
3 Pascal Mussche
Final championship Puchshop Racing Cup 2022
Expi class
1 Bart Dijkhof - 243 pnt
2 Henk Minnen - 237 pnt
3 Kenny Buchser - 177 pnt / Rienk van der Weide - 177 pnt
Standard class
1 Pascal Mussche - 306 pnt
2 Jannick Vos - 221 pnt
3 Paul Hendriks - 181 pnt
Pictures by Mariska Grob of Motografie.nl
Organisation by NK JMR
Pictures (click below)
